On a side note, it's ironic that mobile versions of sites are usually far less readable than regular versions, at least on my Droid X. On a regular page, I can set the zoomed-in text size to large in the settings. Mobile sites tend to make text tiny and un-zoomable, decreasing usability, which defeats the whole purpose of a mobile site!
Webdesigners: please make text readable
91–100 of 109 posts
Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable
#92Even worse (or probably related) than the general contrast problem is the absolutely crazy suggestion to use -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; in your CSS ( http://maxvoltar.com/archive/-webkit-font-smoothing ) I've yet to come across an instance where antialiased is better than using subpixel hinting. In addition, I think it's crazy that the browser would allow a site designer to alter such a highly OS- or even m…
>This is what we see by default. Some people like it, most don’t. (from maxvoltar, on the default webkit rendering (subpixel-antialiased))
Unsubstantiated claim is unsubstantiated. I, for one, find that I can read more quickly with OSX-style text rendering, and efficiency matters to me.
As to the "high contrast movement" OP, I find the lower contrast easier on my eyes. And I have friends who have to wear sunglasses to read books / computer screens because of the high contrast. It's a horse apiece.
Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable
#93Even worse (or probably related) than the general contrast problem is the absolutely crazy suggestion to use -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; in your CSS ( http://maxvoltar.com/archive/-webkit-font-smoothing ) I've yet to come across an instance where antialiased is better than using subpixel hinting. In addition, I think it's crazy that the browser would allow a site designer to alter such a highly OS- or even m…
> This is what we see by default. Some people like it, most don’t. (from maxvoltar, on the default webkit rendering (subpixel-antialiased)) Unsubstantiated claim is unsubstantiated. I, for one, find that I can read more quickly with OSX-style text rendering, and efficiency matters to me. As to the "high contrast movement" OP, I find the lower contrast easier on my eyes. And I have friends who have to wear sunglasses…
As to the "high contrast movement" OP, I find the lower contrast easier on my eyes. And I have friends who have to wear sunglasses to read books / computer screens because of the high contrast. It's a horse apiece.
External monitors, at least, have contrast controls as well as brightness (I wonder why laptops don't).
Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally, I'd prefer the line height to be the same for all the mentioned items for a consistent vertical rhythm. In any case, I know the line height was small enough that I noticed list items and comments felt cramped even before I saw you'd asked for feedback. In this example, regardless of font size or face, the vertical rhythm follows the same beat: http://www.alistapart.com/d/settingtypeontheweb/example.html A…
Just made some changes to line height that moved most of the way in the direction you suggested. You're right - it looks better. Thanks!
Just visited, and I no longer get that "lines too close" feeling, so I'd say whatever you did, worked great.
Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable
#95Even worse (or probably related) than the general contrast problem is the absolutely crazy suggestion to use -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; in your CSS ( http://maxvoltar.com/archive/-webkit-font-smoothing ) I've yet to come across an instance where antialiased is better than using subpixel hinting. In addition, I think it's crazy that the browser would allow a site designer to alter such a highly OS- or even m…
I am mostly on your side. I wrote a rant a while back too: http://peterc.org/blog/2010/235-webkit-font-smoothing-antial... However, since then I acknowledge there is an instance where it does make sense.. any text on black. In OS X, at least, the default rendering of type on a black background bleeds horribly, so I've swallowed my pride and started to use it in situations where it makes sense. It's particularly notic…
> In OS X, at least, the default rendering of type on a black background bleeds horribly
It depends on monitor's gamma!
My monitor with generic color profile exhibits the opposite: black-on-white is bleeding red badly, but white-on-black looks fine.
The issue is (mostly) fixable by using appropriate monitor color profile.
Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
The black-on-grey is hard to read for me, especially at default zoom. I'm bumped up 4 steps (just checked) which gives a bolder text. Garrett Hardin (the Lifeboat Ethics / Tragedy of the Commons guy) actually had several of his books published with a deep brown ink on cream-colored paper, for maximum readability (c.f. _Stalking the Wild Taboo_ referenced here: http://books.google.com/books?id=jT-pl1LQTIIC&lpg=PA101&.…
You mention black-on-grey. Are you referring to HN or my site, www.filterjoe.com? My site is close to the color of a faded paperback novel, a yellow/beige. HN looks halfway between beige and grey on my monitor - so I'm guessing you're referring to HN. I've noticed that the higher the resolution is on a monitor, the easier it is to read lower contrast text. I've noticed large color variance on different monitors. When…
I meant HN, sorry about the ambiguity.
And yes to color variance on monitors. Early-gen laptop screens were horrible for accurately rendering subtle shading differences.
My stylesheet explicitly highlights links, and at least for a while there would add a yellow background on mouse hover, bolding on click. This was really useful especially for distinguishing closely-placed links, or links partially obscured by other page content.
Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
YouTube is very clean. I don't suppose you would share your CSS? If not, I'll do it myself...but it's always nice not to re-invent the wheel.
It would be my pleasure: https://gist.github.com/1106842 This CSS fix for YouTube removes a lot of functionality like the search form but since I can search youtube using extensions and the browser address field this isn't a huge issue.
Thank you. I agree re: the search bar; not such a big deal. YouTube will be much nicer now.
Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable
#98OmniWeb's site preferences feature is my weapon of choice against illegible Web pages. My default colors often make the hard work of the Web designers look totally ridiculous but then again, I'm reading the page to read, goddammit.
Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable
#99Can't help but think that this is directed at Andy Rutledge...
Anyways, line-height is as important for my eyes.
Re: Webdesigners: please make text readable
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Helvetica on Windows is terrible, see https://github.com/paulirish/html5-boilerplate/issues/42 . This is because Helvetica comes from Linotype instead of Microsoft, and they care more about print than screens. Arial might not be a good typeface , but as a font it's pretty damn well hinted for screens. Except for Minion Web and Myriad, I haven't seen a really legible web font from Adobe that is usable at 11-15px. Heck…
Because Helvetica looks so bad on Windows, a good compromise for a CSS font stack is something like: font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,sans-serif; Helvetica Neue (a minor reworking of Helvetica from 1983) is a Mac system font, but few Windows PCs have it. So Mac users get nice fonts and everyone else gets Arial. Many CSS font stacks list Helvetica after Arial, but that is silly because nearly all computers (like 98…
You could use just `font family: sans-serif` without any font name. Mac will default to Helvetica, Win to Arial